This house is moving along, one adobe at a time! One of the beautiful things about adobe is what a forgiving and patient material it is. There are just a few simple rules to follow for laying the adobe bricks (use enough mud, stay level and plumb with the string, lap all your joints), and if you happen to forget the rules for a moment, you can probably correct it the next time you come around. When the day is done, any mortar leftover in the mixer can be covered and saved for tomorrow. Of course, the prep work is what makes that whole process go smoothly. At each corner there is a braced “story pole” from which to stretch a string. Every course of adobe, window sill, lintel, and the bond beam (literally, the “story” that each course of adobe follows) is established with the transit, and marked out on the poles with a nail to hold the string. This lumber will all be reused later when we frame the roof, so rather than hammering the nails in, we pre-drilled holes to make the nail a moveable peg. It’s helpful to do as much of the “thinking work” as possible before you start laying, because laying adobes is dead tiring work. Each brick weighs about 30 pounds. With adobe, the string line gives you your point of reference, so you don’t need to carry a level or trowel, or be constantly checking anything. Compared to other types of masonry, adobe has a greater amount of tolerable variation (the bricks can vary plus or minus 1/2″ in thickness). Horizontal runs of electrical wires are buried directly in the mud, and notches cut out of the adobes for the electrical boxes, which are laid on their sides. Vertical electrical runs will be channeled out later. This is a very different process from wiring a frame house, so it’s helpful to have an electrician who is familiar with adobe and can plan ahead. We have 19 courses of adobe to reach the bond beam, with the first window bucks going in after the 5th course. It’s such a pleasure to walk around inside the house and begin to visualize it, now that we’ve gone vertical.

Aug 18, 2021